Ed Lynskey - Isabel and Alma Trumbo 03 - The Ladybug Song (12 page)

Chapter 20

“Why did
you wait and tell me about this mystery only now?” asked Louise after Isabel
had laid out the basics of the Ladybug murder case.

“Louise,
we just got involved in it ourselves,” said Isabel to her younger sister living
in a distant city over their cell phones. “We’ve barely had enough time to take
a breath much less to think to call you until this moment.”

“Well, I
can’t argue with that.”

Isabel
felt relieved. “We are finally making some progress. The difference this time
is Sheriff Fox has asked us to lend him a hand.”

“That sends
up a warning flare. Why did Roscoe Fox all of the sudden change his leopard spots?
It doesn’t add up. Have you looked under the table to see what his ulterior
motive is?”

“I agree
it’s uncharacteristic of Roscoe but don’t lose any sleep over it. Sammi Jo and
Phyllis are sleuthing right beside us.”

“Sammi
Jo should be a help, but I’d say Phyllis is less so. She hasn’t got the good
sense the Lord gave a goose.”

Isabel
frowned a little. “I told you that is her brilliant disguise, and it might well
come in useful someday.”

“Isabel,
I hate to say it, but that someday is today. Phyllis better get busy sleuthing
in her brilliant disguise and shake out some answers.”

“The
garden shovel Ladybug purchased at Matthiessen’s Hardware Store puzzles us. We’ve
assumed she used it to bury the money suitcase.”

“Did you
ferret out the garden shovel when you rummaged through her townhouse?”

“I have
to say no, but that’s not something she would’ve kept in the bathtub or linen
closet. We looked in every nook and corner there.”

“Maybe
she tossed it into the river when she was finished with her digging.”

“Wouldn’t
she need the garden shovel when she was ready to dig up her money suitcase?”

“Then
she hid the garden shovel in a hollow tree trunk rather than having to haul it
home and stow it out of sight.”

“We
didn’t run across any hollow trees at the swimming hole.”

“I would
have been more selective in my choice of a burial site. The popular swimming
hole must get visited even in October by the older kids seeking a private place
to party.”

“The swimming
hole with its road entrance made it quick and easy for her to drive in, bury the
money suitcase, and depart. Do any other ideas spring to mind for us to try
doing?”

“I have one
idea. Have you spoken to Lotus and Rosie who always seem to know any town news that
is worth knowing?”

“We visited
Rosie’s house where she’s laid up with her leg in a plaster cast from a broken shinbone.”

“How did
she manage to do that?”

“She
slipped on a soap bar while she was in her bathtub shower.”

Louise
had a short laugh. “She better keep track of her soap bar the next time she
takes a shower.”

“Lotus
and Ladybug got into a tiff after Ladybug called Lotus a name. Sensitive about
her weight, she took offense. We haven’t been able to tell if their rancor went
any further than that.”

“Didn’t the
bad blood between the two ladies go back a ways?”

“They
used to snap at each other, didn’t they? I’d forgotten about that detail.”

“It’s
worth poking into a little more to see whether their feud escalated to where it
got out of hand and foul play resulted.”

“We’ll have
to be discrete because I don’t want Lotus to know we’re still checking up on
her.” Isabel had grown weary of their discussing small town murders and changed
the topic. “Have you got any big plans coming up, Louise?”

“I just returned
from shopping at the grocery store. I bought the recipe ingredients to bake a homemade
pie because my sweet tooth has been getting the best of me for one.”

“Are you
prepared to bake an apple pie?”

“This
time I’m going to tackle baking a persimmon pie. I’ve scoped out a grove of persimmon
trees in the abandoned lot a handy three blocks from my front door. I’ll wait
and let the persimmons get ripe. Then I’ll pay the neighbor boy Jeffrey to fetch
me a plastic bag of them since my arthritis leaves me less spry these days.
He’ll offer to do it for free, but I want him to do a good job, so I’ll pay him.”

Isabel could
feel the hackles bristling on the nape of her neck, and she used her palm to
smooth them back down. It was game on, and it felt every bit as competitive as it
had back when they were farm girls. “You wouldn’t be experimenting to try and copy
my persimmon pie recipe, would you, Louise?”

“Nothing
of the sort, so don’t get so defensive. Because you are waist deep in another caper,
Alma and you can’t take a break and bake your pies to send to me. I’m forced to
settle for second best and attempt to bake my own persimmon pie.”

“I see.”
Isabel’s blazing hazel eyes said otherwise. “Actually, Louise, it’s not all
work and no play for us. Alma has a little spare time on hand, and she has decided
to bake a pie, too. Can you guess what type it is?”

“As we
just discussed, she’s famous for baking her cherry pies.”

“She is but
today she is turning audacious and baking an
apple
pie.”

Louise gasped.
“Hey, that’s my pie. Who does she think she is? I wish you hadn’t told me that.”

“Before
you blow your stack, there is an easy solution.” Isabel couldn’t believe she
would ever say what she suggested next. “We could swap our pie recipes and
baking secrets.” She laughed. “I can see now it is plain silly and childish not
to do it.”

 “I
didn’t see that idea ever coming from you. I tell you what. Let me give your
proposal some thought. I might be able to convince myself to go along with it.
How does that sound to you?”

“Sweet
as pie, Louise.”

“Be sure
to keep me up to date on your new murder mystery. I can’t wait to hear the whodunit
part.”

Isabel
smiled. “Stay tuned and happy baking. Bye, Louise.”

***

Alma greeted Isabel entering the kitchen with a distracted nod. The drop-leaf table where Alma sat had the folded down half abutting the wall. She’d been writing on the other side
of an expired coupon. Without her reading glasses on, all Isabel could make out
were the words to the heading LADYBUG’S MURDER SUSPECTS LIST Alma had printed
in all capitals. She glared at her blank list while she tapped her pencil
eraser on it.

“A
watched murder suspects list never grows,” said Isabel.

“I’ve
been racking my brain for murder suspects, and I’ve got nothing,” said Alma.

“Don’t
feel bad. Even Jane Marple must have experienced moments like you are.”

Alma continued her tapping the pencil eraser. “What did Louise have to say for herself?”

“She is
going to think about my idea to swap the recipes for our specialty pies.”

Alma quieted the tapping pencil eraser. “I absolutely love it! How long will it take her to
make a decision?”

“I don’t
think she can wait for too long since the persimmons on the trees in her
neighborhood will ripen soon and fall to the ground. Anyway, who should start
off your murder suspects list?”

“Ladybug’s
two other exes are both possibilities, but I don’t remember their names to
scribble down.”

“True
but they also strike me as long shots. Both exes live out of town, and they each
went their separate ways from Ladybug many years ago.”

“If I scratch
them, I’m back to square one with nobody.”

“Jot
down Lotus Wang.”

“Lotus
went to that bloody extreme just because Ladybug called her a fat cow. Folks
have called me a lot worse names than that, but I didn’t get my revenge by killing
the offender. That’s not to say I wasn’t tempted to throttle them.”

Isabel
shrugged a little. “Who knows if that was the end of it? Louise reminded me of
how Lotus and Ladybug had a long history of not getting along with each other.”

“I guess
I never paid too much attention to them. Their most recent quarrel may have been
the last straw, and it provoked Lotus to plot and carry out Ladybug’s murder.”

Isabel
had a terse nod. “I’d hate to accuse Lotus of murder and then discover it’s not
true because she is a longtime friend of ours.”

Alma sighed. “At times like this, I wished I hadn’t been cursed with the nosy gene.”

“You and
I both do, sister. I think about what Max would have to say if he could see me now
doing this sleuthing.”

Alma had an exuberant laugh. “He was also a big mystery buff, so it’s not hard to envision
him as another operative working alongside us and cracking his corny puns
whenever we hit a tough spot as we have now.”

“Max
would do that,” said Isabel, thinking she had had the good sense and better
fortune to marry a smart and caring man. She’d done all right for herself in
that regard. Life had been good to her, but there was still important work left
to do, so she closed off her nostalgic sentiments until she had the spare time
to indulge them later.

“I won’t
write down Lotus on my list,” said Alma. “But she will earn our extra attention
as we go forward.”

“Should
we let Sheriff Fox in on our latest suspicions?” asked Isabel.

“He’s
probably still tied up counting the money from the suitcase we left at his
office,” said Alma. “That’s just the place for him to stay and be out of our way.”

Chapter 21

“You
have not lived, sir, until you hear the steam engine’s whistle tooting while
it’s slowing into Quiet Anchorage,” said Isabel. “The glorious noise is an
unforgettable one.”

Eustis Blake,
the town pharmacist, nodded. He was bald as an egg and wore a yellow smiley
face button over the pocket of his marshmallow white lab coat. “The steam
engines ran a little before my time, I’m afraid, so I’ll have to take your word
for it.”

Alma thought Isabel had extolled the virtues of the steam engines long enough. Waxing
nostalgic was fine in its place, but right now wasn’t one of those places. The
unsolved murder of Ladybug Miles had grabbed their single focus. Isabel and Alma
had visited the drugstore at her making the suggestion to Isabel.

“Did
Ladybug get her prescriptions filled here?” asked Alma.

“It is so
terrible what happened to her,” replied Eustis. “She seldom patronized my
drugstore and never my pharmacy. She must’ve driven to Warrenton to take care
of her medicine needs.”

“She
lived just down the street,” said Alma. “Why did she get in her car and make
the twenty-minute trip to Warrenton?”

“You’d
have to ask her that question if you still could,” replied Eustis. “I never did
more than exchange pleasantries with her as we passed on the sidewalk or street.”

“Hey
there, all,” said a new female voice. “What do you know good?”

The
three pairs of eyes fell on the jaunty Sammi Jo bounding into the drugstore.
She’d entered from the rear alcove giving to the stairway leading up to the second-story
apartments where she lived. She’d finished zipping up her jacket and smiled.

Alma waved back to her. “You look all set and raring to go. Is today moving day?”

Isabel caught
her breath. They’d kept Sammi Jo’s still vague plans to leave here and live in her
dad’s Cape Cod a secret from Eustis, her landlord, since she hadn’t made any
firm decision on it. Now Alma had gone and spilled the beans to him. Luckily, Sammi
Jo was quick on her feet.

“Not
unless you’ve heard something I haven’t,” she said. “Eustis, are you trying to boot
me out? Did I forget to pay you last month’s rent? Have my neighbors been complaining
to you about my all-night parties?”

The
flustered Eustis disavowed doing any such thing. “Your rent is paid up to date,
and your neighbors haven’t said a word about you or your all-night parties
which I know you’ve never held.”

“Then I
must stand in good stead with you,” said Sammi Jo. “But as a hypothetical, let’s
say I was to move out of my apartment. Would my leaving it create any hardship
for you?”

“Just
turn out the lights before you lock the door and drop off the key at the
pharmacy counter. I can always find new tenants without too much trouble.
Somebody or other is always popping in and calling me out to the counter to inquire
about my apartments’ availability. I should start a waiting list since I get
asked about them so many times.”

“There is
always no fuss and no muss with you, Eustis. That’s why I like you as much as I
do. You’re just a big old teddy bear under your marshmallow white lab coat.”

“Thanks
but I put on my marshmallow white lab coat because I’m too lazy to iron my
shirt I wear under it.”

Sammi Jo
lost the humor. “Have you heard about what happened to Ladybug?”

“I got
the terrible word no more than an hour ago from Ossie coming into the drugstore
for cough drops,” replied Eustis.

“He told
us the cold weather doesn’t bother them,” said Isabel.

“He said
he likes the taste of their cherry flavor,” said Eustis.

“Be sure
to double check your locks before you go to bed,” said Alma.

“It’s a
matter of routine for me,” said Eustis. “You can’t be too careful after what
happened to Ladybug.”

“Blaine is cleaning up on selling the security chains and deadbolt locks,” said Alma. “Ladybug’s murder has put everybody on edge.”

“Why did
she have the offbeat name Ladybug, and what in heaven’s name is a ladybug?”
asked Eustis.

“A
ladybug is a beneficial little beetle orange with black spots on its shell, and
legend says it’s unlucky to kill one,” replied Sammi Jo. “Aunt Phyllis told me
Ladybug’s mother named Ladybug after the popular nursery rhyme.”

“It must
be a Southern thing because I don’t think I’ve heard it,” said Eustis. “Hum a
few bars, and I’ll see if I recognize it.”

Not
feeling a bit self-conscious, Sammi Jo launched into singing the first verse to
“The Ladybug Song.”

Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home,

Fly away home.

Your house is on fire, and your children are gone,

All except one,

And her name is Anne,

Her name is Anne,

And she hid under the pudding pan.

Sammi
Jo’s voice ran strong and clear as her mother Mo Garner singing at the
microphone had been years before, pleasing Eustis to compliment Sammi Jo.

“You have
a gorgeous voice,” he said. “Are you up for giving us an encore?”

“Ready
and willing, Eustis, but my encore will cost you,” replied Sammi Jo. “Otherwise
everybody I meet on the street will to ask me to croon their favorite tune, and
I’ll have no voice left.”

“How
much?” asked Eustis.

“For you,
I charge one month’s free rent,” replied Sammi Jo.

“That’s all
right then,” said Eustis. “I don’t want to hear it again that badly.”

“I
didn’t think you did,” said Sammi Jo. “Has Reynolds put in an appearance at the
drugstore?”

“Not
today and he’s become a stranger around here,” replied Eustis. “He must stay a
busy young man at doing whatever he does.”

“He’s been
on a mission to find a large piece of property,” said Sammi Jo. “The
entrepreneur has big plans to expand his drag race track. He is fixing to close
down the present one and open this bigger, better venue.”

“Nobody in
the sprawl north of us will sell him enough property,” said Eustis. “The land
is worth a lot more to put up apartment buildings and strip malls on it.”

“I agree
but you’d have better luck at talking to the stairway newel than to Reynolds,”
said Sammi Jo. “Once he gets an idea stuck in his brain, he won’t listen to
reason.”

“The drag
race track fans must also live in the populous areas,” said Isabel. “Wouldn’t Reynolds
do better if he figured out how to attract more of them to where he is located now?”

“He claims
there is not even standing room left on Sunday afternoons,” replied Sammi Jo. “Additional
space at a new facility allows him to admit more paying heads and increase his
profits. Anyway, how is the case going?”

“Sheriff
Fox hasn’t gotten in touch with us since we met with him,” said Isabel.

“Far be
it for me to tell you how to run your business,” said Eustis. “But if I were
you, I’d be careful about how much I trusted Sheriff Fox. I can’t say why it
is, but he gives me an uneasy feeling whenever I’m around him.”

“Join
the club,” said Sammi Jo.

“Sammi
Jo means nobody has had more experience with Sheriff Fox’s slippery as an eel loyalty
than us,” said Alma. “But thanks for the warning, Eustis.”

“We’re
overdue for a chat with Sheriff Fox,” said Sammi Jo. “This time I’ll also invite
myself along just to see the sourpuss look on his face.”

“That’s just
his normal expression,” said Alma.

Eustis
laughed before he caught himself.

“Alma
and Sammi Jo, let’s try to be a little nicer to Roscoe,” said Isabel, trying to
keep from smiling.